change management

[copied from my WorkHabit blog post]

Hey folks,

I've worked on a number of Drupal sites where we needed to keep multiple sites in synch, and Drupal has been a challenge to keep that way because so many options are changed through the UI - this tends to show its weakness when we want to keep the settings across all sites (don't even mention content). Moving content types and views is easy with the import/export tools, but blocks are another story. The visibility rules, Roles, and input formats all require your time and attention to detail - time you could be spending working on other features.

I have been working on a framework that attempts to address some of the issues of deploying code and data in Drupal. It is outlined here:

http://heyrocker.com/drupal/content/deployment-and-change-management-fra...

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this.

Is anyone interesting in having a brainstorming session on deployment and change/build management at Drupalcon Boston? This could either be an officially submitted proposal with an open agenda, or an unofficial get together in a side room at the conference center. It seems like a lot of us are struggling with enterprise-level deployment issues, and getting a bunch of smart and interested people in a room talking about their own solutions and brainstorming new ones would be useful for everyone. We all have our own ways of handling it and I'd love to hear other people's ideas.